In late March, the C-J reported that a Birmingham, Alabama based restaurant planned to open in the PNC Plaza tower at Fifth and Jefferson Streets. Thanks to a tipster for sending in this photo that shows the new Zoes Kitchen is nearly complete and should be opening soon.
A report in Business First (subscription only) says the fast-casual chain will occupy 2,300 square feet and could be open on April 19. A former Yum! Brands executive and his wife brought the franchise to Louisville. The Mediterranean style restaurant uses ingredients like vegetables, chicken, olive oil, and feta cheese according to its web site.
It’s interesting to see spaces Downtown not traditionally associated with retail being filled up. Zoes Kitchen occupies a spot that was formerly office space, and a new Qdoba and Wolfgang Puck Express also carve out spaces for retail that weren’t planned or had been converted to office space years ago. While they are all chains, they are increasing the density of choices Downtown.
A second Louisville location is being planned at the Summit shopping center in eastern Jefferson County. Bayer Properties, developer of the Summit, also has a shopping center in Birmingham called the Summit which could explain why they are entering the Louisville market. Three more locations are planned in Louisville according to the C-J article.
The menu looks great, but I prefer a $5 lunch
It is Yum!, not YUM. The all caps would signify that it is an acronym and thus stands for something. But it doesn’t. It is just Yum! The company never uses YUM, they use Yum!
Duly noted and updated, funkychick.
I’m not going to get into a tinkle match with the Funky Chicken, but YUM is Yum!’s stock ticker symbol. And when referring to a publicly traded company, many people choose to use a ticker as a nickname. And further, thanks for the service you provide here, Branden. You could type it as yUM? and as long as everyone knows to what you are referring, what does it matter? After all the downsizing out on Gardiner Lane over the past few years, one would think Ms. Funk has more to do with her time than worry about what you call Tricon.
Enjoyed lunch with Zoes and her crew. Good food. Fast service with a smile and a thank you. Take note YUM! – could be your next marketing tool. Prices in line with other downtown eats. Still prefer the hummus at the Grape Leaf on Frankfort.
I would like to ask you to join the Deerpark, Belknap and Highlands Douglass Neighborhood Associations in fighting and publicizing among your readers the proposed CVS to be located in the 2100 block of Bardstown Road. It would require the destruction of the Twig and Leaf restaurant and several other buildings that offer a unique road scape one that makes Bardstown Road pedestrian friendly and small shop scale of the buildings.